MANGOES

My kids love mangoes.  Thats great, except for the fact that mangoes sell anywhere from $1.00 to $3.00 a piece in the state of Colorado.  It cost me almost $6.00 to buy mangoes for the family today.  Its my fault I suppose.  I buy them when ever I can afford them.  I grew up with an unlimited, year-round supply of Hayden mangoes.  I didn't know at the time that I loved them... I just ate them all the time.  Its like bread.  You don't think of it as a favorite food, yet you eat it all the time.  That was me with mangoes.  My children listen with envy as I talk about being able to go out to the back yard and pick a mango off the tree... or if our tree was barren at the time, I just had to go across the street to my Uncle's house where they had a unique tree that bore fruit all year round... half the tree would bloom at a time so there were always mangoes to be had.

3 bucks a piece... who would have guessed?  We used to have mango fights with the fallen fruit that would involve all the kids on our end of the street.  There would be rotten mango splashed all over the sidewalk and driveways, on cars and front doors.  Mynah birds would screech at us for picking their fruit, but we were actually making their job easier by smashing the fruits open.  And those suckers hurt if you got beamed at point blank range!  Talk about a sticky stinky mess, especially if you had long hair!  But they weren't as bad as strawberry guavas, which exploded on contact... or lichee fruit, which were covered with a hard, spiney peel that felt like a rock against bare skin.

I speak with a melancholy smile as I tell the stories of my childhood in the islands.  But then I come back to the present and shoot my own children a look that says... 'Don't even think about it!  Those stinkin' mangoes cost me $1.00 apiece!'